In Brooklyn we spend these months bypassing our under-ventilated rooms for windy bike rides through the city and cool evenings spent beer-clad on roofs.

My diet during these hot days relies heavily on fresh vegetables and fruits — raw rules! These Vietnamese summer rolls are fabulously versatile and can be altered to include any fresh veggie of your choice. They are a favorite of mine for a light dinner after a long hot day. Serve alongside a spicy homemade peanut sauce!

If you have never worked with rice paper wrappers, they can be a bit difficult, so be patient! The package come with tons of wrappers, so don’t worry if you tear a few and have to toss the ripped skins aside. The wrappers start off brittle and become pliable when you soak them in hot water. Check out this helpful video for a few tips.

Summer Salad Rolls

Ingredients

1 packagemedium-sized rice paper wrappers

1 packagerice noodles

1 headlettuce, chopped into thin strips

4 carrots, peeled and shredded or sliced into thin strips

1 cucumber, sliced into thin strips

1avocado, sliced

1 ripe mango, sliced into thin strips

1 bunchmint or cilantro

Cooking Directions

Place the package of rice noodles in a large bowl and cover with hot water. Cover with a lid or baking pan and let sit undisturbed for 7-10 minutes, or until the noodles separate and become pliable.

Drain the noodles and set aside.

Prepare each of your vegetables and set up an area on your counter or table to work.

Fill a pie pan or similarly-sized dish with hot water and soak a wrapper until pliable. Place on a very clean dish towel and pat dry.

Arrange vegetables and herbs in a small mound and wrap carefully like a burrito. Try to make the rolls as tight as possible. This will take some practice, so don't get discouraged if they come out a little wonky. You can always double-wrap a roll if it rips.

What is RSS? RSS makes it possible to subscribe to a website's updates instead of visiting it by delivering new posts to your RSS reader automatically. Choose to receive some or all of the updates from Earth Eats: